DYNAMIS!
A publication of St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral
Wichita, KS
Proverbs 8:22-30 (01/02) Second Reading at Vespers;
Circumcision of Christ in the Flesh
Eternal Wisdom: Proverbs 8:23-30, especially vss. 23-25: “The Lord created me in the beginning of His ways
for His works. He established me in
the beginning before time. Before
He made the earth, and before He made the abysses, before the going forth of
the fountains of waters, before the mountains were created; and He begot me
before all hills.” In
time, as a matter recorded and always to be remembered, our Lord Jesus Christ
reveals Himself as the Wisdom of God through Whom all that was made was brought
into being. As Saint Nikolai of Zica declares, “In His Person, the Wisdom of God was
proclaimed in the flesh and shown forth to men in its wonderful strength and
beauty.”
Since Pentecost, the Church proclaims Wisdom
Incarnate to be the unique miracle that defends against all heresies (see Acts
2:24-28). He came so “...that
whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (Jn 3:16). The
present passage from Proverbs reveals the Lord Jesus: 1) as the Incarnate
Wisdom of God - the creative Word of God “...by Whom all things were
made,” 2) as God the Son - “begotten not made,” and 3) as
both God and man at once, He Who ever wills what God the Father wills (Jn.
5:30).
The passage serves as a commentary on various
portions of Holy Scripture that especially address God’s creation out of
nothing: “In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth” (Gen.
1:1). “The earth is the
Lord’s, and the fullness thereof, the world, and all that dwell
therein. He hath founded it...”
(Ps. 23:1, 2),
“Who appointeth the clouds for
His ascent, Who walketh upon the wings of the
winds” (Ps. 103:4).
All these passages harmonize with the
declaration of Proverbs that Wisdom accompanied God as He made the world
and “When He prepared the heaven...” (Pr. 8:27). The words of
The preexistence of Wisdom is an assumed
experience throughout Proverbs: “The Lord created me in the beginning of
His ways for His works. He
established me in the beginning before time...Before He made the
earth...” (Pr. 8:23 ). The Arian heretics used this very phrase
to prove that the Word was a created being Who
assisted God in making the rest of creation. But Saint Athanasios
rightly rejected such speculation, pointing out that God the Son, as Creator,
placed His image in man so that men might recognize Him in all His works,
acknowledge and worship God the Father through Him - as the first Disciples
learned to do (Jn. 14:8-11).
Furthermore, to defend the truth of the
preexistence of God the Word, the Creed speaks of the Lord Jesus as begotten
not made, and the Holy Fathers used the same verb that appears in Pr. 8:25:
“Before the mountains were created; and He begot me before all
hills.”
This passage affirms the indissoluble unity of
will between God the Father and God the Word - Incarnate Wisdom: “I was
working beside Him; I was He in whom He rejoiced; daily and continually I was
gladdened by His face” (vs. 30).
The accounts of the Crucifixion are used by the Holy Fathers frequently
to underscore the unity of Christ’s will with the Father. For example, Saint Hilary of
O Master of all Who enduredest
humiliation for the iniquities of mankind, for Thou art good, and granteth salvation to the world: O Lord, Wisdom from on High, Glory to
Thee!
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